A loyalist terror group thought to have been defunct was behind a bomb attack in which a woman and her pet dogs were injured in north Belfast on Sunday night.

The 44-year-old woman sustained cuts to her legs in the blast at her home in the Whitewell area of the city. Two family dogs – a Japanese Akita and a poodle – were also hurt in the explosion.

Nigel Dodds, the North Belfast Democratic Unionist MP, said it was a reckless attack.

"There has been an increase in the use of explosive devices in north Belfast over recent months," he said.

"This must be brought to an end and I call for full co-operation from all sections of the community to make that happen."

A dark coloured car, thought to have been a Ford Focus, was seen driving away from the incident towards the Serpentine Road.

Although the attack was not sectarian, loyalist sources told the Guardian the hardline Loyalist Volunteer Force was behind the bombing. They said the LVF was also responsible for a series of vandalism incidents on a housing estate in Antrim Town last week.

The LVF was driven out of Greater Belfast in the last decade during a murderous feud with the larger Ulster Volunteer Force. However, remnants of the terror group remain in the Antrim area and in North Down. Several former LVF activists have taken part in recent protests against restrictions on flying the union flag by Belfast city council.

Established by Billy "King Rat" Wright in 1996, the LVF was opposed to the loyalist paramilitary ceasefires and engaged in a short but bloody campaign of sectarian violence stretching from Portadown in Mid Ulster to North Antrim.

It was also deeply involved in the illicit drugs trade while maintaining links with a group of extreme anti-Catholic evangelical pastors who encouraged the LVF to wage war on the entire nationalist community.

This group of religious fundamentalists has also been seen recently organising at flag protests outside Belfast city hall.